creating marital harmony and family recipes in my newlywed kitchen

Menu

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been here – so long, in fact, I used to be known as the Night Owl Chef. I was a single girl filling my days with work, my evenings with writing and cooking, and my late nights with blogging. I was adventurous and exploratory in my culinary exploits, sometimes successful and sometimes far less than stellar. Two and a half years ago I couldn’t wait to post what I’d cooked that night for dinner or baked on my Sunday mornings. As I wrote my last post, my head was full of schnitzel dreams and spaetzle thoughts, and I couldn’t wait to come home and share what I’d seen – and eaten.

I’m ashamed it’s taken this long to post again, but times have changed as much as my life. Today I am happily married and living with my wonderful husband in our adorable lakeside New Jersey home. Is it a coincidence that I started dating my husband just over a month before my last post?! A few distractions, you might ask?! Yes, and yes … But I am still cooking, and gleefully so. My kitchen is only slightly bigger than the one in my old apartment, and certainly seems to have no more usable counter space (if I’m lucky, we will renovate said cramped kitchen this winter, and oh, the wonders I will cook!), but that isn’t the important part of the kitchen. As ever for me, it isn’t where you cook or what you cook with, but it’s what you cook and who you cook it for. The home is where the heart is, and my kitchen is where my heart is warmed.

That, then is the reason why I’m back. I still love cooking; I know I’m happier when I’m in the kitchen than doing any other housework (or house “work”, as in this case cooking is to me), and I’m most content when there is homemade food in the refrigerator or pantry for us. I really love the process of documenting what I’m cooking for my new family and sharing with my friends – which is what I think drives all of us to have cooking blogs. Cooking and baking are wonderful things, but sharing and learning can sometimes be even more rewarding.

Another goal of mine in this rebirth of my blog has to do with the new name, Our Peas + Carrots. I want this blog to reflect that the cooking isn’t just mine anymore, but ours – as in, it’s our family’s cooking, heritage, and heirloom recipes. I really cherish my parents’ and grandparents’ recipes and holiday traditions, but I look forward to starting new traditions with my new family. With this blog, I hope to capture the process, the recipes, and the memories. Our Peas + Carrots also stands for what we like, both together and separately – not literally, but figuratively. I’m a very adventurous eater while my husband is a very picky eater. Cooking for our new family means finding common ground for us and building a repertoire we can both enjoy. It’s already been an adventure, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Thank you for staying with me, if you did, and I welcome the new friends! Oh – and hopefully soon I will post some photos from that trip to Germany; it definitely was wonderful and delicious….